While our third weekly offering of FX's new darkly comedic drama "Fargo" was probably the weakest episode of the series so far, it did set a series of events into motion that potentially could (and most likely will) drastically affect every character on the show's life in major ways. Martin Freeman's character Lester Nygaard is caught in a seemingly inescapable situation. Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench are obviously aware of Lester's involvement in the murder of Sam Hess, and based off the preview for next week's episode it looks like Lester is going to end up locked in the duo's trunk. I don't think Lester's demise is coming this soon, but I feel like this could have some negative repercussions for him. The two hitmen connected to the Fargo crime syndicate are not his only worries either: Molly is still hot on his trails, and it does not look like she will give up until she can find proof that Lester murdered his wife, and is covering it up. It looks like the perfect storm is coming Lester's way, and I think he's gonna have a hard time fighting it. But Lester is dangerous. "Fargo" may have only been on for three episodes, but Lester has made a huge transformation since the pilot episode.

It's not easy to tell such a grand and complex story as "Fargo" in only ten episodes, but so far, I'd say its working exceptionally well. The writers know how to develop and evolve characters, and I'd say Lester is a prime example of this. In just a short period of time he has gone from timid insurance salesman to murderer, compulsive liar, and based off tonight's final scene, gun aficionado. He's a very unstable man whom we have already seen blow-up once. In a sick way, I'm interested to see him do it again. Lorne Malvo's story line took an interesting turn this week as well. After last week's episode, I thought Malvo was just going to kill "the bronzer guy", but instead the two team up. Well, it's not really much of a team considering the fact that "the bronzer guy" (yes, that's what I'm calling him) seems to be a bumbling idiot, and Malvo is really just taking over the blackmail plot for himself. Which raises the question: is Malvo's new-found involvement in the blackmail plot purely a money grab or does this guy have ulterior motives? In some ways I see Malvo as the devil, but in other ways I see him as a dispenser of poetic justice. A reckoning of sorts.

Billy Bob Thornton's performance on this show is (as I've said before) incredible, and, after this episode, I've come to believe it's one of the best television has to offer. His humor, his intensity, his tenacity is brought to the screen so seamlessly that it's hard to believe we are not watching a real life character. Even though I do personally believe that "A Muddy Road" was the weakest episode of the series, its ending is quite possible the best scene from the show and it is what convinced me of how truly exceptional Thornton's performance is. His voice-over recitation of Exodus 2: 5-12 gave the audience a semi-clear insight into how this man views himself: as a dispenser of justice and as a force to combat the wicked. Maybe I'm misinterpreting that, but that's what I got from it. Either way, the closing scene of this episode gave me chills, and made me think about the larger themes at play here...which there are a lot of. Aside from that, Molly became a much more interesting character. I was interested in her character in previous episodes, but in this episode we got a much clearer insight into her personal life and we got to see what she's like away from work.

Her connection with Officer Grimly and his daughter allowed us to see that. Seeing Molly's more personal side just made her instantly more likable, and I guess you could sort of say I'm rooting for her (but in the same way you could probably argue I'm rooting for Lester or Malvo as well). Anyway, it was overall another very good episode that gave us clearer insight into some of the characters and asked some new questions about other ones. As the series progresses, the more and more I get entangled in the story, and the harder it gets to wait a week for the next installment. It is a great show and this was a good verging on great episode, but it just felt a little weaker than the previous two. It doesn't really have any major problems or anything, it's just that I cannot gather as much passion for this episode as I did for the others. I feel like "A Muddy Road" served mainly as a building block for a much bigger climax. Still, it is a mesmerizing story and I can't wait to see what happens next.